Thousands of divorce petitions are filed every year.
The reasons why can be varied with solicitors generally aiming for as amicable a split as possible. But who should decide what is acceptable, or unacceptable, behaviour towards another?
Alison Gaddes, family law solicitor at Wake Smith looks at this subjective issue.
She said: “The vows taken at the marriage ceremony “for better for worse” have never rang clearer than for Mrs Owens, the wife of retired mushroom farmer.
“After 40 years of marriage, which she described as “loveless and desperately unhappy”, she issued proceeding for divorce on the fact of behaviour.
“There is nothing unusual about that you would think, but her husband defended her application claiming the marriage had not broken down, and that they had a few years left to enjoy.”
The current practice for solicitors when dealing with behaviour petitions is to try and keep them as amicable as possible avoiding inflammatory accounts so to try and assist the couple to reaching an amicable settlement, and damping down what is an already highly emotive process.
“We all know that relationships are complex, couples shout, argue, and say things they regret, act out of character, and behave intolerably towards one another.
“However, the general practice is to avoid dragging the lowest points of the parties’ relationship into a petition to avoid further upset for the benefit of an amiable separation,” added Alison.
The vast majority of behaviour divorces proceed unchallenged, usually by the other party stating that they agree to the divorce but do not accept the allegations made.
“This is completely acceptable, and it is what has been commonly accepted by the profession.
“How can a third party consider what is intolerable for that individual, one person’s behaviour could be perfectly acceptable to one while not another.
“However, as the law currently stands, a petition can be dismissed unless the Petitioner can show that the respondent has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with him/her.”
Many would think this was a subjective issue, it seems not.
Alison added: “The divorce petition in Mrs Owen’s case is indiscernible from the thousands of petitions filed every year. This leaves us to question whether it should be for the state to determine how we should live our lives happily or not, or whether there is now more than ever, the need for a no-fault divorce petition, removing as said Sir James Munby (President of the Family Division) in the Court of Appeal, “the hypocrisy and lack of intellectual honestly which is the current position in law.”
The Court of Appeal has made it clear in the handing down of their Judgement that it is not a matter for the Courts but one for the Government in changing the current legislation to keep pace with the change in cultural acceptance.
For further advice on divorce call Alison Gaddes on 0114 266 6660 or at [email protected]
